Saint Mary’s junior Joey Dunn chose to come to Saint Mary’s for its 3+2 Accelerated Physician Assistant (PA) program with Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences..
He knew an accelerated program would both save tuition money and get him into the workforce sooner. That, and the opportunity to potentially work for the Mayo Clinic health system seemed like the perfect reason to apply to Saint Mary’s.
Then, when he took a tour of campus, there was one more person who sealed the deal, his admissions tour guide, a bubbly and outgoing upperclasswoman who tried to recruit him for the Nordic Ski Club.
Dunn remembers driving into Winona and taking in the beauty of campus in the spring. “Seeing the bluffs, I thought, ‘I could spend all four years here,’” he said. “And also the woman giving the tour was super nice, and she was saying hi to all these people, and I thought, ‘They have a real community here.’ ”
Now Dunn is a tour guide with admissions, and he hopes to be that same guiding force for other potential students.
One of his favorite places on the tour is Brother William Hall, Saint Mary’s newest residence Hall. “Everyone is so impressed by it,” he said. “They’re so surprised first-year students get to live there.”
Dunn also mentions Saint Mary’s tight knit community feel with each recruit. “It’s not just with other students,” he said, “It’s also with professors and staff. My managers are super cool. We’ve taken our professors out to dinner. That’s not something you could do at a larger school. You wouldn’t have those same close personal relationships.”
